Notation
Note: The tunes below are recorded in what
is called “abc notation.” They
can easily be converted to standard musical notation via highlighting with
your cursor starting at “X:1” through to the end of the abc’s, then
“cutting-and-pasting” the highlighted notation into one of the many abc
conversion programs available, or at concertina.net’s incredibly handy “ABC
Convert-A-Matic” at

**Please note that the abc’s in the Fiddler’s
Companion work fine in most abc conversion programs. For example, I use
abc2win and abcNavigator 2 with no problems whatsoever with direct
cut-and-pasting. However, due to an anomaly of the html, pasting the abc’s
into the concertina.net converter results in double-spacing. For
concertina.net’s conversion program to work you must remove the spaces
between all the lines of abc notation after pasting, so that they are
single-spaced, with no intervening blank lines. This being done, the F/C
abc’s will convert to standard notation nicely. Or, get a copy of
abcNavigator 2 – its well worth it.[AK]

DÁ bhFAIGHINN MO ROGHA. Irish, Air or Polka. C Major. Standard tuning. One part. The song tells
of a woman who would not marry the blacksmith, tailor or fisherman, but instead
selects the fiddle player--”se an bheileadoir is fearr liom.” Cranitch (Irish Fiddle Book), 1996; pg. 46.

DÁ mBEADH CUIRT AGAM
IS CAISLEAN (If I had a court and
castle). Irish,
Air (2/4 time). B Flat Major. Standard tuning. AABB. O'Sullivan (1983) finds no
other version of this air or words. The tune is irregular with respect to
measures (eight bars in the first section and twelve in the second), and the
words Bunting prints do not fit the tune. Source for notated version: the Irish
collector Edward Bunting obtained the melody from Miss Murphy, Dublin,
in 1839. O'Sullivan/Bunting, 1983; No. 135, pgs. 190-191.

DAFYDD Y GARREG WEN (David of the White Rock). Welsh, Air (3/4 time). A Minor.
Standard tuning. AABB. A popular Welsh traditional song, the tune first appears
in Jones’s first edition of Musical and
Poetical Relicks of the Welsh Bards (1784), a collection of Welsh harp
music. The title refers to the 18th century blind harper and
composer David Owen—y Garreg Wen, or
‘the White Rock’ was the name of the farm on which he lived near Porthmadog in
Caernafonshire, Wales.
The tradition of calling one by the first name and the house where he lived was
common in Wales
at the time, and still is sometimes heard. David was said to have had his harp
continually at his side.He died young,
at age 29, and, as the story goes, before expiring he asked for his instrument
and played this melody, requesting that it be played on a single Welsh harp at
his funeral. The words below were written in the 19th century by
poet John Ceiriog Hughes:

DAINTY DAN. American?, "Straight Jig" (2/4 time). G Major. Standard
tuning. ABB'. This appears to be a type of old‑time banjo tune, unrelated
to the 6/8 time Irish jig, and which perhaps became associated with 'jig
dancing' (a name for a solo dance in Britain)
or perhaps a derogatory name for African Americans. Hardings All Round Collection, 1905; No. 6, pg. 2.

Ewan MacColl (Folk Songs and Ballads of Scotland) maintains that the name Dainty
Davie refers to the Reverend David Williamson, who died in 1706. It seems, says
MacColl, that the Reverend was the subject of an unauthenticated incident
related by Dean Swift. Williamson found himself pursued by dragoons, the story
goes, and while sensibly fleeing he found refuge in the bed of the daughter of
the Laird of Cherrytrees. Hiding was apparently not the only act he engaged in
while so occupied, but afterward he married the lass. A variant of the story
has it that the young miss (from whose voice the song is told) disguised the
Reverend in her clothing, tweaking him a bit by calling him ‘dainty’ Davie.

***

The melody was immensely popular,
given the number of versions in published collections and appearances in
fiddlers’ manuscripts of the 18th century. Its provenance appears to
be English, but it is strongly associated with Scotland, perhaps due to having
been popularised by Robert Burns. "This spirited tune was developed from a
simple Scottish strain about the end of the 18th century, by O'Farrell, a
famous Irish piper well known on the London stage,” said Captain Francies O’Neill.
He was surely in error, for the melody appears first in print in Henry
Playford’s Dancing Master, 12th edition (London, 1703, and in
subsequent editions, through the l8th, in 1728), and in numerous English country
dance publications such as London publishers Walsh (Compleat Country Dancing
Master, 1731) and Charles and Samuel Thompson’s 1765 country dance
collection. "I know nothing about this, farther than that the air and a
bit of the song remain in a remote corner of my memory from dim old times,”
remarked Irish collector P.W. Joyce. The title appears in Henry Robson's list
of popular Northumbrian song and dance tunes, which he published c. 1800, and
the tune appears in the 1799 Calvert
Collection, an assembly of tunes by Thomas Calvert, a musician from Kelso. A
note with his collection states that Calvert supplied “a variety of music and
instruments, instruments lent out, tun’d and repaired.” It also appears in Issac Cooper of Banff’s (b.
1755-d. 1810 or 1811, although sometimes the year is given as 1820) Collection of Strathspeys, Reels and Irish
Jigs for the Piano-Forte & Violin to which are added Scots, Irish &
Welch Airs Composed and Selected by I. Cooper at Banff (London, Edinburgh,
c. 1806). Purser (1992) believes Robert Burns wrecked the words of “Dainty
Davie” with successive revisions, attempting to clean them up for George
Thompson’s publications.

***

Dainty Davy was a lad;

He sold the shirt upon his back,

To buy his wife a looking‑glass,

To see how nice her beauty was:

So there was Dainty Davy! (Joyce).

***

Cooke prints the following words,
collected on the island of Whalsay,
in Shetland:

DAIRY MAID [3], THE (Bhanarach dhonn a'chruidh). AKA and see "The Brown Milkmaid." Scottish, Slow
Air (3/8 time). G Minor (Fraser): A Minor (Johnson). Standard tuning. ABB'
(Fraser): AABB' (Johnson). "A very imperfect set, indeed, of this melody
pervades a good part of the country. In Burns' Reliques, published by
Mr. Cromek, there is a song, called 'The Banks of the Devon,' said to be to
this air, of which the editor was ignorant; but it is observed that Burns
acquired the air from a young lady in Inverness,‑‑doubtless from
one who had similar access with the editor to the compilations of his
progenitor and Mr. Fraser of Culduthel" (Fraser). Fraser (The Airs and Melodies Peculiar to the Highlands
of Scotland and
the Isles), 1874; No. 55, pg. 19. Johnson (The Kitchen Musician's No. 10: Airs & Melodies of Scotland's Past),
vol. 10, 1992 (revised 2001); pg. 5. MacDonald (Patrick), Patrick MacDonald's Collection of Highland Vocal
Airs (Edinburgh, 1784). Topic 12TS381, The Battlefield Band ‑ "At the
Front" (1978).

DAIRY-MAID’S WISH, THE. AKA and see “The
Dairy Maid [2].” Irish, Double Jig. G Major. Standard tuning. AA’BB. The
earliest appearance of the tune in print is in Church
of Ireland cleric James Goodman’s
mid-19th century manuscripts. Goodman (1828-1896) was an uilleann
piper, and an Irish speaker who collected locally in CountyCork and elsewhere in Munster.
He also obtained tunes from manuscripts and printed sources. The melody in
Goodman and Petrie is virtually identical. Shields/Goodman (Tunes of the Munster
Pipers), 1998; No. 52, pgs. 23-25. Stanford/Petrie (Complete Collection), 1905; No. 597, pg. 150.

X:1

T:Dairy Maid’s Wish, The

M:6/8

L:1/8

S:Stanford/Petire (1905), No. 597

Z:AK/Fiddler’s Companion

K:G

A/G/ |: FDD FEF | DGG G2A | BAB
GBd|cAG F2A |

BAB Bcd | cBc ABc | cdf/d/ cAF |1
GAB/G/ A2G :|2 G3 G2 ||

|: g | gfe fdc | BGG G2g | fef
def/d/ | cAG F2c |

BAB Bcd | cBc ABc | def/d/ cAF | G3
G2 :|

DAIRYMAN'S DAUGHTER, THE (Hoirrionn O! air nighean an àirich). Scottish, Strathspey. E Minor.
Standard. AABB. This tune "is the guileless and sincere, but perhaps too
candid confession of love, by the dairyman's daughter to her admirer,‑‑but
to the simple language of a female heart, uncorrupted with dissimulation of
vice, no indelicacy can be attached.In
each Highland hamlet or cottage
there is always a dog, who acts the part of a sentinel, and is more useful in
preventing nightly depredation than locks and keys. If her lover came round in
the night time, she takes into consideration that the dog might not possibly
distinguish him form a thief, and thus disclose their assignation,‑‑she
therefore declares that her faith being plighted to him, and him alone, it was
her intention to check the cur, open the door, and hold an interview with her
lover, where no other could hear their mutual protestation. The air is of a
cheerful cast" (Fraser). Fraser (The
Airs and Melodies Peculiar to the Highlands of Scotland
and the Isles), 1874; No. 141, pg. 57.

DALE RITCHIE’S
HORNPIPE.Canadian, Hornpipe. Composed by Sarnia, southwestern Ontario,
fiddler John(ny) Durocher (1934-1989), in honor of another Sarnia fiddler. John
was born the youngest of sixteen children, to a modest family of few resources.
He quit school in his young teens to help make family ends meet and remained a
factory worker for most of his life, not even possessing a drivers license.
John came to fiddling when he found a broken fiddle in the trash one day and
asked the owner for permission to retrieve it; with some repair work he had his
first instrument. A few lessons from a local teacher (which served to teach him
how to read and write music), were all the formal music education John
received. He was a prolific composer of fiddle tunes, however, and named them
for sports and current events, family and friends and topics of his day, explains
Ritchie. Durocher’s music was picked up by radio fiddler Don Messer, who
included many of his tunes in his broadcasts and printed collections, helping
Durocher to become quite influential in the Ontario scene for his compositions.
[For more see Ron Ritchie, “John Durocher: A Gifted Composer,” Fiddler Magazine, vol. 12, No. 2, Summer
2005, pgs. 25-27].

DALKEITH HOUSE. Scottish, Reel. D Major/Mixolydian. Standard tuning. AB (Surenne): AAB
(most versions). Composed by James MacDonald, whom Hunter (1988) identifies as
one of the "professional" fiddlers who contributed to the Gow
collections. Gow (1817) notes he is the “late” Mr. MacDonald. Dalkeith is a
Celtic name meaning ‘meadow by the wood.’ Dalkeith Palace, Midlothian, was a 12th
century castle that came into the ownership of the Scotts of Buccleuch in 1651.
At the time the tune was earliest printed (in McGlashan’s c. 1786 collection)
Dalkeith House was occupied by the 3rd Duke and Duchess of
Buccleugh, Lady Elisabeth Montagu (b. 1743), who in 1767 became the wife of
Henry (1746-1812). Gow (Complete
Repository), Part 4, 1817; pg. 37. Hunter (Fiddle Music of Scotland), 1988; No. 209. McGlashan (A Collection of Reels), c. 1786; pg. 39.
Stewart-Robertson (The Athole Collection), 1884; pg. 111.
Surenne (Dance Music of Scotland),
1852; pg. 83.

DALLAS BOUND. Old-Time, Country Rag. G Major. Standard tuning. AA'BB'. The city of
Dallas, Texas, was named for an American vice-president, George Dallas, though
the name Dallas itself has Celtic origins (the town of Dallas is in Morayshire,
Scotland) and means “meadow by the wood” (Matthews, 1972). Source for notated
version: Sandol Astrausky with the Little City String Band [Phillips]. Phillips
(Traditional American Fiddle Tunes),
Vol. 2, 1995; pg. 38.

DALLAS RAG. Old‑Time, Country Rag. USA, Texas. F Major. Standard tuning.
AABB. The city of Dallas, Texas, was named for an American vice-president,
George Dallas, though the name Dallas itself has Celtic origins (the town of
Dallas is in Morayshire, Scotland) and means “meadow by the wood” (Matthews,
1972). Source for notated version: Dallas Stringband (Texas) [Brody]. Brody (Fiddler’s Fakebook), 1983; pg. 83. Folkways FA 2396, New Lost City Ramblers‑ "Vol.
1." June Appal 014, John McCutcheon‑ "The Wind That Shakes the
Barley" (1977. RBF 18, Dallas Stringband‑ "Ragtime 2."
Learned from the Dallas String Band). Rounder Select 82161-0476-2, “The Wind
That Shakes the Barley: Hammered Dulcimer Music” (reissues, orig. released
1977). Yazoo L 1045, Dallas Stringband ‑
"String Ragtime."

DAME GOWDIE. English. England, Northumberland. Title appears in Henry Robson's list
of popular Northumbrian song and dance tunes, which he published c. 1800.

DAME OF HONOUR, THE. AKA and see "Queen Bess' Dame of Honour."
English, Country Dance Tune (6/4 time). B Flat Major. Standard tuning. AABB.
Kidson (1890) finds that the original song “Dame of Honour” was by Thomas
D'Urfey and appeared (sung by Mrs. Willis) in the opera The Kingdom of the Birds, although it was also printed in vol. 1 of
his Pills to Purge Melancholy (1719).
The air quickly proved popular and was used for several subsequent ballad
operas such as Polly (1729), Fashionable Lady (1730), The Lottery (1731), The Devil to Pay (1731), and Jovial
Crew (1732). Playford published it in his Dancing Master (vol. II, 1728).

DAMOSELLE COTILLON, LA.English, Cotillion (6/8 time). G Major. Standard tuning. AABB. A part of
a cotillion, popular in the 18th century. A cotillion was a
latter 18th century dance that originated in the French court, but
soon became popular in England.
The name, which means ‘under-petticoat’, may have derived from a popular song
that went, “My dear, when I dance, does my petticoat show?” It is a precursor
to the quadrille, and like the quadrille was danced by four couples facing
inward in a square set. The
piece appears in a number of publications and at least one fiddler’s
manuscript, including Straight and Skillern’s Two Hundred & Four Favourite Country Dances, vol. 1 (London,
1775), Skillern’s Compleat Collection of
Two Hundred and Four Reels…Country Dances (London, 1780), Thompson’s Compleat Tutor for the Hautboy (London,
1790), and James Aird’s Selection of
Scotch, English, Irish, and Foreign Airs, vol. 1 (Glasgow, 1782). It also
appears in the music manuscript book of fiddler James Burk, dated 1821 (very
nearly identical to the version printed by Aird). Although nothing is known of
Burk, he may have been from the north of England.

X:1

T:Damoselle Cotillon, La

M:6/8

L:1/8

R:Cotillon

S:James Burk’s music manuscript
(1821)

Z:AK/Fiddler’s Companion

K:G

B/c/|d2d dBd|e2c c2e|dec BcA|G2G
GBc|d2d dBd|e2c c2e|

dec BcA|(G3 G2)::d|g2g gfg|a2d d2
f/g/|a2a aga|b2g g2b|

abg fge|d2d d2B/c/|d2d dBd|e2c
c2e|dfc BcA|

G2G GBd|d2d dBd|e2c c2e|dec BcA|(G3
G2)||

MY DEAREST ELLEN.???
Unknown to me. It does not look like a “fiddle tune” to me at all, and may be a
song air or a light classical piece (?).